


Seeds of Melancholia

by Midoriberry



Category: Persona 5
Genre: F/M, Frottage, Heavy Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Moral Dilemmas, Pining, Possibly Unrequited Love, Sex, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:13:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24042661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midoriberry/pseuds/Midoriberry
Summary: The leader of the Phantom Thieves has a problem. Is he in love or thinking too hard about the bond that could not be?Haunted by his conflicting feelings for Goro Akechi, Ren struggles to keep himself together all while juggling with his thoughts and current girlfriend.How far will that seed grow? Will Ren cultivate it until the sorrow chokes? Or will he poison its growth and break free from its oppressive hold?
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	1. Foundations

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Shuake fic. I've been thinking how to do one aside from my usual go-to (aka smut), but for some reason this feels right?  
> I've been toying with this idea and now I've been able to put it into script.

There he goes again, smile confident yet guarded - almost as if he had a secret to hide. Every smirk, every smug eyebrow arch, every sarcastic reply was a method to distance himself. And he did it again. 

No matter what I did, no matter how much I sought for him, Goro Akechi will never look at me the way I want him to. 

It started off as an acquaintance, a slow forming friendship thanks to Akechi’s frequent visits and text messages. Many of these texts were flirtatious, sometimes downright overt in what I thought was reciprocation, or at least some kind of interest beyond his stupid obsession with “our” rivalry. 

_I’m alone right now._

Yeah, and with a hand inside your pants, sure. How else was I supposed to interpret this? If Goro were a playful person, kissy faces and heart emojis would litter the text. And I’d shamelessly answer back with the same emojis like the greedy asshole that I am, fully knowing what I did was wrong. 

From the moment he uttered that word - yeah _that_ word - I knew he pretended to feign ignorance and fought for truth and justice - or so he claimed. Instead he threatened to blackmail the Phantom Thieves behind an artificially sweetened smile and led us into a trap, but we were several steps ahead of him! And yet as the darkness descended into the starless Tokyo sky, stars erased from the bright lights but not in the collective unconsciousness of our souls, I held his leather glove in my trembling hand and pressed it against my chest. I couldn’t find myself being proud of our ruse. 

I can’t stop thinking about him.

I wish I had told him how I felt and yet I couldn’t.

I have a lover. No. A girlfriend. To play around behind her back would have hurt her, but worst of all it would have hurt Akechi the most. I longed and pined for the day when I can tell my girlfriend goodbye and move on. Let my heart mend itself from the guilt of leading her on and make my feelings be known to Goro.

Though I knew deep down he would question my virtue. 

No, not my purity!

All he did was gesture thought. He gestured and gestured and gestured some more as if he were some _real_ world class detective. The smug asshole. A thinking pose doesn’t make you smart!

But, hubris aside, Goro Akechi was smart. Too smart even. With a mind capable of analyzing beyond the speed of light, it was inevitable he’d question if my feelings were true especially if I were tied to another. And if I managed to break free from those chains, to hunt and pursue the one who held the other side of my red string of fate? He’d sever that bond and surround himself in a fog of suspicion. 

Undeniably, a relationship built on sand would always be doomed for failure. Erode in the wind, sink and dissolve in the water, or turn into fragile jagged edges from the passion of a lightning strike.

I’d crawl and beg. Grovel at his feet. Hands and knees bleeding and quaking beneath the weight of my heavy heart, and sift through the murkiness in desperation to find that cut end. The need to tie it back to his small finger, to mend and make anew. I would writhe in filth if it meant for Akechi to reconsider me. 

I wish you could have looked at me before you departed.


	2. Level and Layer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before having to think about jail time, Goro returned just in the nick of time.

Goro returned to the world. And to me. 

On Christmas Eve Sae informed me I’d have to go to juvie in order to get Shido prosecuted. Just my damn luck. After all we went through to bring him down and save the world, I still had to walk down the metaphorical death row. For my friends, for whatever needed to be done, I would do it. 

“There’s no need for that.”

And there it came, the cliched Christmas miracle in the cheesy holiday movies, Akechi interjected. 

Blood from my face drained into the pit of my stomach. The world spun around as he spoke to Sae calmly and with an air of confidence I had never seen before in him. Lips moved slowly as if time entered into a crawl. His words muffled yet loud and clear as day. What in the world? How the hell? What was he doing here? He left me behind that wall, the smirk thick in his voice before the bullets thundered.

I pounded against the steel gate until Ryuji and Makoto pulled me back, my hands pulsed in a numb pain. A trickle of blood rolled into my sleeves. 

“He’s gone, Joker!” Skull yelled.

“Navi are you sure!?” Fear gripped my heart and doubt clouded my judgment as I held onto her shoulders. “Are you really sure you can’t sense him!?”

Navi jumped, hands trembling. “Y-yes!”

“Enough,” said Queen. She yanked me away from Navi. “He’s gone, Joker… Akechi is gone.”

I reached into my pocket and squeezed Akechi’s leather glove. For him I would do anything. Dead or not, I would fulfill my promise to him. 

Toppling Shido had never been so satisfying until this moment. 

Goro walked away and Sae followed. 

My heart raced. “You’re taking him with you?” I blurted out to Sae. The atmospheric swirls dissipated. The boxed echoed sounds faded into normalcy. My mind finally caught up with what was happening.

“Hm? Yes? I have to send him into questioning.” Sae shrugged. “You can’t just waltz up to a random police officer and say ‘I’m guilty: take me in.’”

“Ah, right…”

She smiled. “I can’t assure you anything, but I’m confident everything will go back to how it should. I promise I will do my best.”

Sae said her goodbyes and wished me a Merry Christmas. Akechi never turned to look at me when he left.

Of course he wouldn’t.

But he was alive, and that’s all what mattered right? Perhaps now I can tell him how I felt even if he spent the rest of his life behind bars. Akechi would know and he’d reject me with his practiced smile and perpetual condescending tone. The chains wrapped around my heart would break free from a stronghold Akechi never knew he held. Sure it would suck to be told you weren’t liked back, but liberation from these feelings weighed more on me than my criminal record ever had. 

I startled at the sound of my text tone; it was my girlfriend. 

“Right, Christmas Eve is for couples.” My tongue singed with bile and bitterness. I texted her back. May as well get some ass to let off my stress. 

It didn’t take long for her to meet me at Shibuya Crossing. Her bright smile could have blinded me, but it never did at least not the way _he_ had. As beautiful and sincere as her’s was, Goro’s smile had more character, even when fake. Any time he entered a room, forced act or not, Akechi managed to outshine everyone else. All eyes on him - admiring or spiteful. Though mostly admiring.

My heart continued to run a marathon. From nervousness that I just saw Akechi leave or that I accepted my girlfriend’s call to get my dick wet? I will never know, or really admit to either. Goro lived and I told myself that’s all what I should care about, and yet I found myself wishing for more. 

I wished for Goro Akechi to be at my side right now. Wine, dine, and fuck him into the dingy mattress of Leblanc until the crates gave out. 

“So where to?” asked Akechi.

I shook my head in disbelief. 

My girlfriend looked at me in concern. “Is everything okay? 

“Yeah, just a weird itch,” I replied while pretending to scratch my ear. I swore I saw Goro instead of my girlfriend. 

“I’d like to spend the evening with you…” Her voice began to warp. Robotic then organic and smooth. The masculine sound of Akechi’s voice echoed from her mouth. I blinked several times and popped my ears for good measure. The detective prince’s voice continued to sing praises of his love for me and how excited he had been to finally be alone on a special couple’s holiday. 

“I’d like that too…” I answered, her height a little above mine. 

“I don’t have any fancy to wear.” Her giggles were his. “But how about we go to a small restaurant?” Lips lightened.

“Hmm… maybe the mall has something we can do.” Her hair shortened, becoming silky and light brown. 

“Great idea!” she said with broadening muscles. “There’s always something to do there.”

“Let’s get going.” I smiled back at deep maroon eyes and held a gloved hand as we made our way to the train station.


	3. Early Erosion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How could it be that Goro Akechi appeared before his eyes when he had just left Sae a few moments ago?

Was this real? Was I dreaming? I pinched myself for good measure as Akechi led me to the underground mall. Couples, young and old, swarmed the place in search of romantic activities. Holiday jingles echoed from the speakers. Shop owners waved to the passerbyers with their Santa Claus or elf hats wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and thanked them for their patronage. Frantic parents zipped to the trinket and toy stores in hopes to buy their children last minute gifts, pushing others as they made their way through. 

“It’s so crowded.” Akechi frowned. His shoulders sagged at the reservation rejection from the fifth restaurant. “This was a stupid idea. I refuse to wait two hours for a fucking table.”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean by ‘huh?’ Were you born without oxygen?” 

Whoa wait, what in the world was happening? Was this really Akechi?

“Is that really you?”

He huffed, indignant by my words. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Because he cursed? His general rudeness? Sure, I witnessed it back in Shido’s palace in the engine room, but I figured that up as Akechi at his wits end and letting his anger and need for revenge get the best of him. Now he was there when he should have been with Sae, pouting with his arms crossed. The very image of a spoiled brat.

“Cute…”

What should have happened was either a flustered Akechi or the image of my blushing girlfriend at my daring comment. I even expected him to yell at me since he was in a foul mood. Instead, none of that happened. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. My beloved was still in front of me, not flustered nor mad, simply full of himself. His lips transformed into a smug grin, posture relaxed yet confident. His eyes - his brilliant eyes - were finally looking at me. It hadn’t been with love or admiration or any sort of romantic feelings, yet it was a start. A small victory.

Or so I had thought.

Those eyes were cocky and mischievous. Any wrong words or moves would spell disaster for me.

“Like what you see?”

“Yeah,” I said bluntly. Things were already weird enough as it was. May as well roll with it. 

Goro smirked. “Then let’s get out of here.”

“My place or yours?”

“Are you calling me easy?” he laughed. 

“Nah.” My heart pounded, ready to burst out from my chest at any moment. I hoped he was the easy type. The thought of taking Goro home, mine or his, and doing lewd things with him, making him moan and pant out soft curses into my ear and yell out my name as he came. To continue to fuck him senseless until we were both satisfied because I knew deep down he wanted more, and I would give him more. “Actually, yeah. Wanna come with?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” He stared at a jubilant couple gushing at their cake box. “Oh, but… I want a Christmas cake.”

“Why?”

“Don’t ask such stupid questions,” he snapped. The glimmer in his eyes faded, his sight on mine yet he was no longer looking _at_ me. “Buy me a cake.”

My dick deflated but not my resolve. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it with reassurance. “Try to keep up, Akechi.”

The attic was freezing when I arrived. Sojiro forbade me to keep the heater unattended. While yes, it made perfect sense why not to, I still wanted to choke him for the stupidly smart rule. We turned on three heaters and gathered a ton of blankets on the couch and bed. 

Akechi shivered on the couch and accepted the coffee I made graciously. Placing his delicate lips on the rim, he took a small sip and sighed. “Ahh~ Delicious.”

I wish I was that mug.

He forked a piece from his slice and ate it. “This cake reminds me of that time we went to that cafe. Though this one is less sweet.” Akechi drank more coffee. “Goes down wonderfully with bitter coffee. I like it.”

I dug into my cake and wolfed down several chunks. He was right, the cake wasn’t as sugar packed as the one we tried. And he likes things that are less sweet? Good thing to note. “This cake reminds me of home, actually.”

“Oh?” Goro arched his eyebrow. “Well this certainly is a first. You never talk about yourself.”

I grinned. “You never let me.” 

“I’ve given you chances and you refused.”

“That’s not true. You’re always talking about yourself or your latest blog escapades or some book you read.”

The loud clatter of the mug against the table. I winced yet Akechi remained silent, face hardened and somber. “It _is_ true.” His eyes glared at mine. His soul was full of fire and rage. “ _You_ just didn’t _listen_.”

My body trembled underneath the layers of warm clothes and blankets. He was the snake, and I the rodent put under a spell from his hypnotic eyes. Though instead of being eaten alive, I was thoroughly humiliated. 

I… I didn’t listen to him? 

That couldn’t be. I always listened to everyone. From a bratty middle schooler to a fallen politician. How could he say I didn’t listen? After all we had gone through, all the effort I put in to get to know him, to see more of who Goro Akechi was. I took that bastard to the bathroom and messed up his hair and let him borrow my fake glasses to escape the fangirls. Didn’t listen, my ass. Perhaps I should have let him get jumped by them while I waved goodbye and walked away unscathed.

Maybe I should have shoved him into the bathroom stall instead and kissed him. Perhaps then he’d get the hint off me being all ears, eyes, mouth, knees, whatever for him. 

“You’re cruel.”

“Am I?” he murmured as his sight shrunk back and opted to stare at the mug instead. 

“You are.”

I got up to open the window and sat on the bed. Watching the snow fall was less frustrating than to hear Akechi accuse me of being oblivious and calloused. Doesn’t he know how much I sought for him?

Akechi’s body sat next to mine.

What a damn tease.

We stood silent for what felt like an eternity.

“The snow is peaceful,” Goro finally said. 

“It is.”

“It’s the first snowfall of the year. Some may say it’s a Christmas miracle.”

 _You’re a Christmas miracle._ “That’s sappy even for you.”

“I suppose.” He shrugged. “So…” His head leaned into my shoulder, soft tendrils of his fluffy hair caressing my cheek. “It’s too cold for me to leave.”

There goes that heart acting up again. My vision blurs from his implications. Hands trembling in my lap; they do not dare to immediately touch Akechi. I want to touch him. I want to be with him. I want him to look at me.

My mouth parched and paralyzed. If I didn’t say anything right now, would he grow annoyed with my nervousness and leave Leblanc? “Are you propositioning me?”

Goro snuggled closer to me and removed his right glove. The naked hand traveled to my shuddered ones and swiped his middle finger against it, traveling slowly to my wrist and into the inside of my jacket. He pulled his hand from my sleeve and lowered it onto my thigh. “I like a guy with a _firm_ resolve.”

I could not see a thing. If I had to describe what I saw, it was a mist that surrounded Akechi’s body. But I didn’t care. He was right there and I would not let him go. Our lips collided in a searing kiss. We breathed between the kisses, our lips never separating and hungry for more. I shoved Akechi onto the mattress and fumbled to remove my clothes. 

Goro spread his legs like a whore and massaged his growing erection, but he was not looking at me. 

He didn’t see me when I kissed him again and bit his neck. The moan he let out was music to my ears. Soft flesh shivered when I yanked his shirt off, exposing it to the frigid air. I sucked on his hard nipples and pinched the neglected one when I went back to eat the other. His back arched into me.

He panted filthy words. “That’s right, attic trash. You gonna fuck me? Gonna shove that fat cock inside my ass?”

“I’ll cum inside for good measure,” I retorted.

Akechi snorted, and hissed when my hand cupped his crotch. “You think you can make me yours?” He bit my neck and suckled on the mark. 

“I’ll make you see me one day.”

“What?” a different voice said.

I ignored the ringing in my head. The mist grew thicker; it had become hard to see. My body fell into its lustful haze as I removed Goro’s trousers and boxers. Our hard groins bucked against another and didn’t stop. The friction was incredible. I didn’t want it to ever stop.

“You’re so… aah… Amamiya… fuuuck.” Akechi threw his head back, hips thrusting in desperation to seek pleasure. “You’re sick. You’re so - _oh god_ \- sick.”

“I’m sick of you.” I rubbed our cocks together. “I’m sick of this.”

“No you’re not.” His hands joined mine as we continued to rut. They were small and delicate. “You want me.”

 _Fuck him. Fuck you. I need you so bad._ “Look at me Akechi.”

His tongue lapped my mouth and kissed my bottom lip. “I hate you so much.”

Those words were lies, yet they were laced with truth and lust. We kissed as I came into our hands and he followed after with a hitched sigh. Everything about him was incredible. From his sweet voice to the soft mounds on his chest. The curved hips and the wetness between his legs.

Akechi could no longer be seen through the mist, but my hands could. I laid myself beside him, panting words of love and adoration. Unable to stave off sleep, I kissed his forehead and dozed off into the night. “I like you…”

Morning light awakened. The cold breeze became unbearable despite the warm body next to mine. Sitting up, I noticed women’s panties on the floor. Did Goro see that? Wait, no, he couldn’t have. I wasn’t stupid enough to leave that kind of evidence with Sojiro creeping about.

The person beside me didn’t have the right hair color either.

No…

I swallowed hard and revealed the person beneath the blankets: my girlfriend.

I’m so fucked up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'm kinda pantsing this but all good things.  
> Let me know what you think.


	4. Tilling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And he came back after New Years. Christmas Eve didn't happen, right?

“So you noticed it?”

“Yeah.”

Of course I noticed it. Futaba’s dead mother was sitting in Leblanc and trying to play weird games with me. I guess she really was like Sojiro described, but that was neither here nor there. What I needed to know was how Akechi got out of holding.

“Something happened on Christmas Eve, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…” Goro rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

The night we spent on Christmas… Did it truly happen or did I hallucinate the entire thing? All I remembered right before my girlfriend transformed into my love had been an intense desire for Goro to return to me. He came back, but only to be whisked away by Sae. That was not what I wanted, and yet I had a taste of it through my illusion. It felt so real. His skin, the heat, the kisses and bites he left on my body…

In fact, I still had a bruise on my neck. My girlfriend was not the type to be that voracious in bed, which led me to doubt. The bite mark, large and blue… it couldn’t have been from her. No way in hell.

I hated myself for doubting, for wanting my delusions to be true, yet why did the entire ordeal appear too realistic when it occurred? At the moment, I believed Akechi were sweet and docile with a hidden beast inside though only when he lost all inhibitions. Instead the beast had been let loose in public, snarling and swearing. His face angelic to strangers transformed into a thug when he expressed his displeasure to me, then back again to the jovial Detective Prince when asking for Christmas cake to the salesperson. 

If it were fake, Goro would behave like the Detective Prince who liked to chat with me and splurge on his past. I got a rabid dog during the mirage. Something didn’t sit right.

I wanted to believe my hallucinations were created by something fantastical, not my burning desire to have Goro look at me. 

“Hey Akechi?”

“Hm?” 

“Back then… those days…” What did I want to say to him? Could I even gather the gumption to ask about Christmas Eve? Would he scoff and call me an idiot? A masochistic side of me hoped for it, though the rational side shoved him and reprimanded my strange detour. 

“The boat? Well…” His face fell, eyes wrought with anguish, unsure how to explain the situation. “That’s not important right now, is it? What matters is the weird event.”

Yes it is! It most certainly is! What sort of cheap answer was that!?

That Akechi tempted me. He tempted me deep. My hands itched to wrap themselves around his neck until he confessed what happened.

I chortled instead. “You’re a real piece of work, aren’t ya Akechi?”

He smirked. “You’re one to talk.” Leaning against the washing machine, he peeked outside the door then turned his attention to me.

Goro  _ looked  _ at me.

“How about we team up?” he asked, voice low and with a hidden agenda underneath the tone. “I promise I won’t do anything to betray you.”

“You sure about that?” I grinned and took a step forward. 

“... _ this time _ ,” Akechi clarified, eyes narrowed and brandished a predatory smile. He leaned further back, almost sitting on the machine as I inched closer to his body.

“Oh, I’m well aware of it.” I slammed my hands on the washer, trapping Akechi between my arms. We were both hunters and the prey. Neither of us ready to relinquish our hold. He would be mine, and I would be his. 

I reached for my scarf and tore it from my neck. I snapped my head to the side, giving Goro a damn good look at his vulgar masterpiece. “You’re a biter after all.”

His hands were on my head, gentle yet firm. His maroon eyes painted a picture of remembrance. Muddled and taken aback by the bruise, Goro caught himself and recovered from the confusion. Though it lasted for a mere few seconds, I saw it. 

Something did happen on Christmas Eve, and he wasn’t fessing up. 

For a moment, more brief than with my bruise, his eyes read something else.

Loud and fucking clear as the sun in the sky: Look at me, they said. 

_ I am looking at you. But look at me forever.  _

Akechi pulled his face close to mine, and I reciprocated. Heart pounding, eyes refusing to close lest the moment disappeared and found ourselves in our homes, wanting and wishing. Bedsheets ruined and our hearts broken into pieces yet beating wildly at the dream. We didn’t need sonnets, songs, or poems, or any words. What we needed…

**RING RING!**

“Senpai! This is Kasumi! I’m here in Odaiba and there’s something really weird happening!”

Goro slid from the washer and pressed my speaker button to hear. Nodding at Kasumi’s frightened plight and taking mental notes of the situation. 

The moment had been destroyed. He no longer looked at me anymore.

What we needed?

Time to ourselves. 

“Let’s head to Odaiba, Amamiya.” Goro eyed the floor. “Don’t forget your scarf. Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold.”

I feared such a thing would never happen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your support!  
> This chapter's a bit short, but all in due time.


	5. Sowing Seeds

The snide remarks didn’t sit well with me. Not because he insulted me, but because they contained the same vitriol as my hallucination. When I removed my scarf, his sudden change in expression hurt my brain even more.

A nauseous wave hit between the eyes. My vision blurred with sickness and misery as Akechi and I approached Odaiba. Pulling the scarf to my mouth, my stomach twisted and churned; I closed my eyes to fight off the retches and vomit threatening to release. Thoughts of Christmas Eve played in my head. The cake, the snowfall, the sex. An illusion of my deluded mind, yet it comforted me.

Why? I wasn’t too sure. Perhaps knowing I had a girlfriend and that my feelings for her were not true, only as a way to release my sexual frustration and out of a general “like” destroyed me.

Not really a “perhaps.”

It killed me.

It killed me to know I had such shallow feelings for my girlfriend while my heart and soul yearned and pined for Akechi. And yet… I felt human. Though I was a monster for my thoughts and actions, the fact that I loved, that my heart soared whenever Goro approached me in the subway before school, that my eyes were glued to every magazine cover and TV screen whenever he appeared, proved I was capable of love. Not lust or like or hate: love. Everything I did on the day of my Akechi hallucination was genuine.

Nonetheless it hurt to not be seen.

Akechi cleared his throat. “This is our stop.”

If Goro noticed anything, he did not say or show any acknowledgement.

  
  
  
Kasumi’s reactions to Goro’s presence amused me. Swirly ponytail locks taken aback, hand springing to her mouth, eyes widened as she saw the Detective Prince speak about Palaces and Personas like a pro. Her naivete and perky personality were cute and welcome. At least for me. One extra person on board would allow me to focus on the mission and not on Goro’s fine ass.

And out of all the clothes he chose to use, he just had to use the one that accentuated his glorious toned ass. The black mask outfit looked like it came out from a twelve-year-old’s drawing of their original character. Black and blue stripes, clawed feet and hands, and a jagged helmet. Nothing in the world would convince me Goro didn’t have the very costume drawn in an old notebook.

What a dork. I love him.

My eyes wandered to Akechi, but I thanked god for Kasumi’s inquisitive nature. Every time my sight neared his ass, Kasumi’s peppy self popped up. It would’ve annoyed me if this had been any other situation, but she kept the heartache and palpitations away.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Kasumi asked the millionth question. Crow’s fists tightened at her voice, stepping away with a scowl. He had done this before since they arrived in Odaiba. Upon meeting a freaked-out Kasumi, Akechi’s voice changed from casual rude to the trademark Detective Prince. Cordial and professional, he stiffened his posture and stilted his movement in front of her. A human regressing into a robot. The smile he wore was more manufactured than his usual plastic smile. With the Phantom Thieves, he used several smiles - some genuine, some not. With Kasumi, there lacked a neutral false smile. Beneath the grin and pearly whites lied something far worse than plastic and concealment. A deep sentiment he hid yet not from me.

Akechi beamed at Kasumi.

Disgust.

He loathed her.

  
  
  


Deep inside the research facility, Kasumi pulled me to the side. Though she had my physical attention, mentally I had been staring at Crow’s perfect rear as he bent over to pick up a pamphlet.

“Hey senpai…” She bit the tips of her gloved fingers. “About Akechi… has he always been like that?”

“Huh?” Right, she asked me a question. Seriously, now was not the time to interrupt me, not while Goro’s bountiful grace had been splayed out like a feast. But I guess I deserved it for wishing for relief on my poor broken heart. I can’t blame someone for doing what I wanted them to do.

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t spoken to him much, but don’t you think he’s different?”

I chucked. Must be nice to live in her little bubble. “That’s his true self.”

“True self?” Her quivering hand touched her chin. “He just seems so…”

“Shall we be off?” said Crow, his smile laced in rage and revulsion. Ah, I remembered that smile all too well in November! 

Kasumi whispered, “Oh… I hope he didn’t hear us!”

I hope he did. I wanted to knock off his edgy helmet and slam his face to the wall while I groped his crotch and ask him to behave in front of _our_ guest.

Of course it never happened, though the glint in Crow’s eye gave me the impression he asked for the same thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
